<p>I recently received a prophetic word that God was going to restore 7 -fold what the devil had taken. Great word! I was thrilled! Jumped up and down. Shared it with Arthur. We were very excited about it. It was the first word on restoration I had received in 7 years. For 7 years, it had been either silence or our words had been: “you are in the battle; God says you have been faithful”. Nothing revelational there! You know when you are in the battle. You don’t need a prophetic word to confirm it! I knew the devil had stolen from us. It was almost as if everything was been sucked down into this black hole of nothingness. As I am very much a stickler for it that if God speaks, I act! , I started to act on my prophetic word. I sat down and made a list of all that the devil had stolen. Not because I was greedy, just because I wanted a visual list in front of my eyes to be able to thank God for His 7- fold restoration every time I laid my eyes on the visual. My “stolen goods list” looked along this line: - Houses (lost 4) We'd all love to live in a "Smart House" - Cars - Money - Clothes - Make up - Health (from been under constant stress) - Medical Aid - Insurance - Holidays - Jewelry - I’m very tempted to list my hairdresser! (long story) - Our Jobs - Our Name - Our reputation - Bedding - TV’s, carpets, furniture - Food But a strange emotion occurred when I started the list. It started with the Health aspect. I really wanted (not needed) to have some dental work done, and the thought that kept on crossing my mind: “I can pay to have dental work done, but if I trust God, God will do it for free. Flip the coin, if I pay, the devil is stealing MONEY from me again, because I’m spending money on Health when God promises me: Ps 103:5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. REVELATION (yet again): I DID NOT NEED TO PAY MONEY FOR DENTAL WORK; GOD COULD DO IT FOR FREE! 2nd on my list was my family's health & stress related symptoms. I kept on hearing this quiet whisper: " but my Son has paid the price for your healing." 1 Pet 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness-- by whose stripes you were healed. REVELATION (yet again): You don’t need to pay MONEY for medication when Jesus paid the price in FULL FOR MY HEALING! ONLY BELIEVE! Next up was the houses and the cars: God just said: If I’ve called you to be a sojourner through this earthly land, do you need a house and a car? Yes, u do, but God provides all the way! The question God challenged me with was "you trust God to provide a house and a car?" Another issue sorted! God was ticking them off my list at an alarming rate! The JOB, MEDICAL AID and INSURANCE we had to deal with 6 years ago. We had to learn to live by faith. Arthur and I felt for US (not for you, but for OUR FAMILY) God was saying, I want you to rely on ME for your daily provision, and a roof over your head. It was a TOUGH LESSON to learn. When the restoration word came, the Holy Spirit whispered: “do you really want to go back to the bondage of a salary, medical aid and insurance? Do you really want to trade all the lessons you’ve learnt living by faith for a lifestyle of just enough (salary) and of having a backup plan incase I don’t work? (Medical Aid & Insurance)” My response was: but what happens if it all gets stolen (insurance)! WRONG QUESTION! “If the devil has stolen from you and you have learnt to live by faith, you are able to faith it all back! And once again, I will restore more that the devil took! What have you really lost?” was quietly offered as an answer. The devil cannot rob me of my FAITH in God! As the Holy Spirit made mince meat of all of my "stolen goods to be restored 7 Fold" points, the only thing I came up with what had truelly been stolen (BY FAITH God could heal and replace all of the rest, I only had to BELIEVE) was my RELATIONSHIPS! (and the Holy Spirit just proved to me once again that I did not know God well enough to trust Him to restore) The devil has stolen many of our (ours & the children's) relationships with family and friends. The crux of my list left me once again realising: GOD IS ONLY INTERESTED IN PEOPLE! Only when I had started "seeking 1st the kingdom of God" had I received the promise of 7-fold restoration. Only once I started leading people to the Lord, praying for the sick, started preaching the good news of the Gospel, - all the things important to God, did the promise of restoration come. Once my sights were focussed on what God saw as important, PEOPLE, not just people, but where people would spend eternity, how I treated individuals, what words of life had come out of my mouth to sow life etc, He sorted out the rest. All else comes down to my faith level in “ONLY BELIEVE” Matt 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. The reality check I experienced was we all equate Restoration 7 - fold to Finance/Money! Even with all the lessons I've experienced in the last 7 years, I really needed to shift my thinking into "the mind of Christ" before thinking of "things to be added to me" Now, I can truelly look forward to God restoring each and every relationship, and *SEVEN FOLD BONUS!* adding many more because He promised He would restore 7 fold all that the devil had stolen! *Bonus* Look after people (saved & unsaved/rich & poor/lovely & unlovely/goodlooking & ugly) and God looks after your needs!</p>